The Australian health system has a diversity of arrangements for planning, funding, delivering and regulating health services, with a mix of private and public sector involvement.

The Australian Government, through the Health and Ageing portfolio, has significant financial and policy responsibility for health services, including hospitals, public health and mental health, while the state and territory governments are largely responsible for the direct provision of such services. Local governments and non-government organisations are also involved in the direct provision of health services. Private, non-salaried practitioners provide most medical, dental and allied health care. Two major national subsidy schemes - Medicare and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - are funded by the Australian Government to cover all Australian citizens and permanent residents. The schemes are discussed in Health care delivery and financing. In 2005-06 total expenditure on health as a proportion of Australia's gross domestic product was 9.0%.

The chapter contains two articles. The first, Overweight and obesity in adults, examines the changes in the proportion of people who are overweight or obese between 1995 and 2004-05 and the characteristics of those people. The article Diabetes mellitus discusses the self-reported prevalence of diabetes between 1995 and 2004-05 and the characteristics of people with diabetes.

Unless otherwise noted, content on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Australia Licence together with any terms, conditions and exclusions as set out in the website Copyright notice. For permission to do anything beyond the scope of this licence and copyright terms contact us.